Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 August 1877 — NEWS OF THE WEEK. [ARTICLE]

NEWS OF THE WEEK.

THE WAX IN THE EAST. A Constantinople dispatch says the Porte has ordered the immediate concentration of 50,000 militia of the second class at Adrianople, Sofia, and other points near the scene of operations. A war correspondent telegraphs that the Russians hay# over 200,000 men from Pyrgos to Gabrova and thence back to Nikopolis. At the rate reinforcements are coming in the Turks will in a short time be crushed by overwhelming- number* The fight for the poMession of the Bchipkapass prrtres to have been one of the most sttib born and well-contested on both sides that the war has afforded. The Russians occupied a numbej|of bitrenchmeutaoriginally constructed. l>y the Turks in Hie defiles of the Balkans, but ajuHidoned by them soon after the Russians penetrated into Boumelia. The Turks hurled themselves with desperate valor upon thfcse defenses, and were repeatedly repulsed with terrible slaughter. For four days the contest raged with fury, the valorous Turks, with gradualy thinning ranks, returning time and again to renew the assault, always with the same result. The Russians, on each approach of the enemy, poured a galling fire into their ranks, mowing them down by hundreds, literally paving the mountain side with corpses. On the fifth day the Russians, wqrn out with the incessant fighting, and threatened with a flank movement by the superior numbers of the enemy, withdrew and left the coveted pass in the possession of the obstinate Turks. It Was a great victory, but purchased at a tremendous cost. The number of Turks killed and wounded is estimated at not less than 9,000 or 10,000, including many officers. The Russian loss, owing to the fact that they fought under, cover of their works, was comparatively small. The total Russian force engaged in defending the pass was 13,000 men. Opposed to these was the whole of Suleiman Pasha’s army, estimated at 60,000. Another victory is claimed for the Turks in Asia, They captured a Russian position, and repulsed an attempt of the Russians to regain it after five hours’ severe fighting, in which the assailants’ loss was, according to Moukhtar Pasha, 4,000 men killed and wounded, and an immense quantity of arms and munitions. Th# Turkish loss is placed at 1,200.

GENERAL FOREIGN NEWS. The London Times' Calcutta correspondent telegraphs that the prospects for the autumn crops may be regarded as hopeless in Southern India, most critical in Western, Central and Northern India, and fairly good in Eastern India. The Imperial Government of China has issued an edict against the use of opium, declaring itslll-ie was bringing destruction upon the Chinese people. In addition to home production, opium is imported into China to the annual value of over $40,000,000, principally from British India. The often-attempted feat of swimming across the channel from Franco to England has been accomplished—the swimmer, a man named Cavlll, .making the crossing in five minutes more than twelve hours. The distance is twenty miles. Gen. Grant has arrived in Denmark, and is visiting his sister, wife of Minister Kramer, at Copenhagen. Advices from the City of Mexico state that “the Mexican official organ has published a memorandum of Minister Foster, explaining the intentions of the United States in issuing orders to Gen. Ord. Perfect tranquillity is reported. Measures for bringing the border question to a satisfactory settlement are being discussed.” The late, nows from Spain is that the failure to subdue the insurrection in Cuba is mainly due to corruption, incompetency and maladministration on the part of Spanish officials, but there arc no indications that Spain has any intention of abandoning the contest, or that she fears outsiders. A Berlin correspondent states that the Khedive of Egypt, for his military service to the Porte, demands the right to form a navy. On account of numerous accidents on the overworked Roumanian railways, an agreement has Wen made by which the railways pay 4,000 francs for every soldier killed, and 12,000 francs for every officer killed. The plague having broken oiit in Russian Poland, the German frontier lias been closed by a strong military guard. It is asserted in England that Osman Pasha, who coinntanded the Turks, at Plevna, is no less a personage than the celebrated Marshal Bazaine. It is officially announced that all the great power# and Belgipm, Holland, Sweden and Portugal have adhered to the German protest against Turkish cruelties. United States Minister Noyes and family have arrived in Paris.

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. ICast. The New York Wffness, a temperance and reliciona daily started in 1871, has suspended publication. ' Suits are to be brought against the county of Allegheny by the Pennsylvania railroad and the owners of private property destroyed in the Pittsburgh riots for the recovery of damages to the full amount of losses sustained. S. E. Hardman, manufacturer of Kenyon’s fire-escape, was giving an exhibition of his ajiparatus at in New York, a few days ago. HO fastened the instrument to his breast and lowered himself out of the thirdstory window, when the brass band parted, and Hardman fell headlong to the ground, being instantly killed. Y,, is introducing steam streetcars. A A The lumber of coal-miners who have struck in Northeastern Pennsylvania is more than 40,006. Their demands include a restoration of the wages as they wore in May last. Music has been transmitted, by telephone from New York to Hartford and back without break, a distance of 240 miles, presumably an unexampled feat of the mysterious telephone. South. A dispatch from Austin, Texas, says Col. F. L. Britton has been discharged by the examining, db®t where he wa. tried for the shooting •dr Marshal Purnell. The verdict was “Shooting' justifiable, being in selfdefense.” The cotton report of the Department of Agriculture makes an unusual showing of the condition for August, no material decline being apparent from the status in July. The general ave»'«e for July was 93.4, in August 93. No State averages stand higher than in 1876, except those of Louisiana and Florida. John Wesley Hardin, the most notorious desperado that ever infested the Southwest, was lecently arrested at Pensacola, Fla., on a requisition from the Governor of Texas. About twenty shots were fired in making the arrest, and Hardin s companion, named Mann, was killed. Hardin has murdered twentv-seven men in Textts within a few years.

The Georgia Constitutional Convention has finished its labors and adjourned. West A sensational tragedy occurred near Kickapoo, Kan., the other day. A dissolute young farmer named Scroggs killed his father-in-law, Jasper Oliphant, and a constable named Gross, who attempted to arrest him. The community was so incensed by the double murder that a mob gathered and summarily put an end to the wretch by hanging him to the limb of a tree. A Salt Lake (Utah) telegram of Aug. 22 reports that Gen. Howard, the day before, had a skirmish with the Indians, in which one man was killed and seven wounded. The same night th® ungrateful savages stole 200 of Howard’s horses. The Nevada voiunteers were returning homo, thoroughly disgusted with the manner in which Howard was conducting the campaign. Advices from Gen. Howard to Aug. 24 report him still in pursuit of Chief Joseph’s band, and only one day behind. As ho Vras compelled to halt and await supplies there was no immediate prospect of his overtaking the savages. Chicago merchants are laying themselves out for a big fall trade. The newspapers of that city have recently had reporters out among the business men, sounding them upon the subject, and in every instance they met with the most encouraging anticipations. An unprecedented rush of business is reported by newly all lines of trade, and merchants, without an exception, predicted the largest fall business that Chicago has ever shown. Three horse-thieves were recently hung by a mob in the Missouri river bottom, between Lexington and Holden, Mo. A dispatch from Camp Robinson, Neb., chronicles the robbery of the Deadwood and Sidney stage, near Buffalo gap, by five highwaymen, who fired into the coach without giving any warning to halt. One of the passengers was shot through the ear. The robbers secured only sl2 out of the SI,OOO in the possession of the passengers. Two spans of the great Union Pacific railroad bridge that spans the Missouri river at Omaha were destroyed on the afternoon of Aug. 25, by a whirlwind which swept down the river and lifted the spans off the piers. The bridge wis completed March 25, 1872, at a total cost of about $2,000,000. The damage is estimated at $300,000, but will probably bo loss, inasmuch as the piers are standing, and the superstructure can be restored at far less than the original cost. Of course the principal loss will arise from delays in transportation and the necessity of breaking bulk.

WASHINGTON NOTES. The President and all the members of the Cabinet returned to the capital last week. A late Washington dispatch says: “The latest information as to the direction which Chief Joseph and his band are taking is that they are heading for the buffalo range near the Crow reservation. There is no intention of relieving Gen. Howard from command. The Secretary of War thinks that he is doing the best that can be done with his handful of troops, and with almost insurmountable difficulties to overcome. POLITICAL POINTS. The Democrats of Pennsylvania, at their State convention at Harrisburg, on the 22d of August, nominated John Trunkey for Supreme Judge, William P. Schell for Auditor General, and adopted the following resolutions : 1. That the induction of Rutherford B. Hayes into the office of President, notwithstanding the election of Samuel J. Tilden thereto, was a high crime against free government which has not been condoned and will not be forgotten. The same spirit of patriotism which forebore a contest upon the first offense will resist and punish any attempt at a second. 2. That .the immediate happy effect of application by the Federal administration of the Democratic policy of non-intervention in the internal affairs of the Southern States amply vindicates our frequent protests against the previous violation of the reserved right of the several States to the exercise of all power not delegated to the General Government by express constitutional provision. 3. That the purpose to reform the civil service which han been proclaimed by the present administration Is like its adopted Southern policy, a confession of the failure of radicalism and a just tribute ■to the Democracy which has long and earnestly demanded the overthrow and punishment of corrupt officials.

4. That capital combined in corporate organization has been too highly favored by both State and Federal legislation, and its demands for large returns arc inconsistent with the depressed condition of the laboring and business interests of the country. We oppose turther enactments for its special benefit at the expense of other interests. Labor and capital should have no cause of antagonism, and they should be left free to adjust their own relations. The right to contract freely exists for both parties. 5. That we accept the admonition of Jackson in saying, concerning standing armies as dangerous to free governments in time of peace, “I shall not seek to enlarge our present establishment nor disregard the salutary lesson of political experience which teaches that the military should be held subordinate to tho civil power.” Accordingly an increase of the Federal army and any attempt to employ it as a partisan agent of the Federal authority or for interference with the sovereign rights of States will receive the continued earnest opposition of tho Democracy of Pennsylvania. 6. That many of our rich men have not been con-. tent with equal protection and equal benefits, but have besought us to make them richer by act of hv nHpmntins to gratify their desires have in the results of legislation arrayed section against section, interest against interest, man against man, in fearful commotion; and therefore the grant by the Legislatures of States or by Congress of exclusive privileges, and the establishment of odious monopolies under pretext of public benefit, or of justice to certain sections of the country, are direct assaults upon the equal rights of the people f and, as these monopolies have been contrived to enrich a few, while a large number of people are reduced to want, the Democracy of Pennsylvania protest against subsidies, land grants, loans of the public credit, and appropriations of the people’s money to anyuiorporation as legalized plunder of the tax paying industries of the country. 7. That we look with alarm mid apprehension upon the pretensions of the great transportation companies to be above the fundamental law of this Commonwealth which governs all else within our borders, and, until they accept the constitution of 1873 in good filth, they should remain objects of the utmost vigilance and jealousy by both the Legislature and the people. 8. That we hereby reaffirm and adopt the' financial resdlutlons ofthe National Democratic platform adopted at St. Louis in 1876. A call has been issued for a State convention of the Pennsylvania Greenback party, at Williamsport, on the 19th of September, for the nomination of a State ticket. It is asserted that in? -case the Republicans secure a majority in the Ohio Legislature Secretary Sherman will enter the field for the United States Senatorship against Matthews and Garfield.

The Connecticut Greenbackers met in convention, to the number of 1,500, at New Haven, the other day, and passed resolutions calling for the unconditional repeal of the Resumption act, the full monetization of silver, the passage of an act making greenbacks full legal tender and interchangeable with bonds, the adoption of an equitable system of taxes, and the abolition of monopolies, opposition to subsidies, and condemning Secretary Sherman and calling for his removal. The Virginia Republicans have decided to

nominate no candidate# for State offices this year. 4. **’-'*•' “